Bonjour Sarah,
"est-ce que..." translates as "is it that..." and is used in front of statements to make questions of them. However, remember there are several ways of asking a questions in French. Taking the sentence you supplied:
Tu as soif? - this is simply the statement with and upward inflection to indicate it is a question.
As-tu soif? - in this type of question, the verb and the pronoun are switched to indicate a question as in the English "Are you thirsty?" from "You are thirsty"
Est-ce que tu as soif? - is simply adding 'est-ce que..' to the beginning of the statement in order to make it a question. It translates literally as, "Is it that you are thirsty?"
All three types of question can and are used interchangeably and neither one is used for than the other.
I hope this helps,
- Marie-Claire

socena-g

December 7, 2012

i have difficulties with the sound R and numbers what can i do?

Dan-S45

February 26, 2015

Hello, just started the course about 10 days ago and am confused
about Est-ce-que. For example I thought I understood Est-ce
que from lesson 1.3 there were recorded samples that this meant
"Do" or Est-ce que vous? is "do you"

Now I'm in 2.1 and see examples that Est-ce que starts off meaning
"Is" - the Picasso museum nearby? Then later in the lesson its used
as in the blue box is Est-ce que as "Are" you ready? I looked on
line at other French resources and see "Can"

So, really?! There are now 4 uses Est-ce que all spelled the same
and no real difference in text that I can tell. And
there isn't any explanation in the course?

Help

jason☺

February 26, 2015

Hi Dan,

As Marie-Claire sais, "est-ce que..." translates as "is it
that..." and is used in front of statements to make
questions of them.

Try using the My Vocab feature and type Est-ce que. Then look at
the phrases you see and the English translations. Copy and paste
here the phrases you would like to discuss.

I wish the tool would let me pick the search language and create
a lesson filter and generate a link I could share, but it should
work for you fine. You will find many more than you list above.

If you study Chinese, it is like the ma 吗
that they put at the end of a phrase to make a question. It's
a question word. In chinese the same word is used for names and for
parts of other words like horse. In French, the position is
different. In fact, I prefer this simplicity over English. Why must
we create so many different ways of asking a question? Silly, isn't
it?

-Jason

toru e

February 26, 2015

This is more of a usage tip/observation. I have one tutor who
converses using "tu" and another who converses using "vous". My
"vous" tutor always asks me questions using "Est-ce que" form,
while my "tu" tutor will either use "Est-ce que" or just inflect
the subject-verb to form a question (i.e. "Est-ce que tu as fini ?
or "Tu as fini ?"), so I get the impression that there's a subtle
element of formality or politeness in using "Est-ce que", though
not as formal as an inversion ("As-tu fini ?).

Dan-S45

February 27, 2015

Jason/Torusan, thanks. I did a search in the vocab like
you suggested and yes it comes back with 5 pages from results
Est-ce que. The majority though seem to start with Do which
is what i understood it to be and maybe I'm safe to assume that
usage mainly. Jason, I don't agree that creating more ways of
a question, isn't necessary. Take a look at the samples from
the coureses

Est-ce que vous me comprenez ? - Do you
undertand me?

Est-ce que tu as soif? - Are you thirsty?

These are (from English 2 different questions) yet same Est-ce
in French. You wouldn't say "Do you thirsty"? in
English or "Are you understand me"?

Sorry still confused but maybe overanalyzing it.

jason☺

March 2, 2015

Ah, yes. Well, these are yes/no answer questions. You
might ask them in English like below and anybody would undertand
you:

Est-ce que (vous me comprenez) ? - You
understand me, no?

Est-ce que (tu as soif) ? - You are
thirsty, no?

General formula:

Est-ce que (statement) ? -
(statement), no?

Answer: oui ou non, yes or no.

Does that help?

In casual English like that, you could say at the end (is it
(true) that, is it so, no, yes, correct, hmm)? and anybody will
understand you are just asking if they agree with the statement you
made. Depending on the situation, they may volunteer more details
(how, what, when, why, where, which). Est-ce que is just for a
yes/no purpose. There are other ways to ask for specific
information.

See Marie-Claire's answer above, it is very complete, in my
opinion.

Dan-S45

March 9, 2015

Hi Jason, I sincerely appreciate your response and how quickly
you respond! I think this makes sense, my trouble is I tend
to over analyze things--my son is twittering/e-mailing and has
friends in France he practices with and was quite surprised at my
dilemma. He showed me some of his conversations and he said that
the Est-ce que just wasn't used that much vs. tu as soif for
example. He seems to think native French speakers (friends
likely) don't really use as much.

Also, I've downloaded all the lessons onto my iPhone and
listen diligently on the plane, etc and almost whenever I can, and
verbs particuarly just don't seem to sink in for me. Is there
any suggestions on learing verbs better? I did see a question in
the forum and Marie suggested the Megacard games but they're just
too advanced. I've only been at this 3 weeks or so and
realize I need patience, but any other suggestions highly
appreciated.

I think people learn as fast as they need. The bigger your "Why
am I doing this?", the faster you will go. Use the motivation
section here at Rocket Languages to help you.

As for materials to help you go faster, first do the lessons
here as fast as you can then try Duolingo and Memrise.
Maybe Livemocha (if you are on a computer most of the day because
they have no mobile app). Here are some other ideas:

For verbs, try using the quiz on www.verb2verbe.com. They have
an iPhone/iPad app also that you may like. Or search for "French
Verb Conjugation" by Joseph WIlliamson. It is a beautiful app that
makes it easy to practice the conjugations.

-Jason

toru e

March 10, 2015

Dan, just to emphasize an earlier point, your son is talking to
peers, so yes, their register is informal, and that's why they're
not likely to use "Est-ce que..." in their questions. If they are
asking a question to a teacher though, they are more likely to use
it, because it's in a formal, spoken context.

One thing that I picked up a few months ago were the verb drill
sets from French Today. They're mp3s, roughly 20 minutes each, and
focuses on common verbs. To be honest, I found them too easy for my
level, but I think they're better suited for someone looking for a
good conjugation foundation.

Ashraf--44

March 10, 2015

Bonjour Sarah,

"est-ce que..." translates as "is it that..." and is used in front
of statements to make questions of them. However, remember there
are several ways of asking a questions in French. Taking the
sentence you supplied:

Tu as soif? - this is simply the statement with and upward
inflection to indicate it is a question.
As-tu soif? - in this type of question, the verb and the pronoun
are switched to indicate a question as in the English "Are you
thirsty?" from "You are thirsty"
Est-ce que tu as soif? - is simply adding 'est-ce que..' to the
beginning of the statement in order to make it a question. It
translates literally as, "Is it that you are thirsty?"

All three types of question can and are used interchangeably and
neither one is used for than the other.

I hope this helps,

Dan-S45

March 15, 2015

Thanks everyone! I found the Duolingo best (for me at least)
but the verbe2verbe is quite helpful too. I'm definitely
motivated as we're traveling to France (and England) this summer
for vacation and want to be able to converse (or be able to
understand) as much as I can in French. I also downloaded the
French Verb conjugator by Williamson, take a little getting used to
be helpful as well.

Thank you.

Ask a question or a post a response

If you want to ask a question or post a response you need to be a member.